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☆ Venmo and other payment app theft is ‘skyrocketing,’ Manhattan DA warns
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Mark Morales | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Zelle and other payment apps may be convenient ways to send cash with a few taps of your smartphone, but they’re a breeding grounds for theft, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg tells CNN. Bragg says he’s seen so many instances of criminals using payment apps as a crime of opportunity. The passenger would ask to put in a new address into the Lyft driver’s phone and once inside, they would transfer the in-app earnings to their own bank accounts using Cash App, the records show. Once in custody, investigators found that the pair has sent themselves $1,749 using Cash App, the records show. Bragg said his team has been trying to get the word out in recent years and have heard from victims who never came forward during outreach campaigns about cash app thefts.

Persons: CNN —, Attorney Alvin Bragg, swindlers, Bragg, Sen, Elizabeth Warren’s, “, ” Bragg, Zelle, he’s, It’s, ” Organizations: CNN, PayPal, Attorney, Consumer Financial Locations: Manhattan, New York, Zelle, Los Angeles, Boston

☆ COVID-19 fraudsters bought fancy cars, a Pokemon card - even a private island
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Patrick Parker Walsh is serving five and half years in federal prison for stealing nearly $8 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds that he used, in part, to buy the island. Instead, he's serving five and half years in federal prison for stealing nearly $8 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds that he used, in part, to buy Sweetheart Island. They potentially plundered more than $280 billion in federal COVID-19 aid; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. They've created special "strike forces " to hunt down COVID-19 aid thieves and vowed not to give up the chase. A few weeks after Oudomsine applied for the pandemic aid, the government rushed him $85,000 to keep his non-existent business afloat.

Persons: Richard Lardner, Patrick Parker Walsh, Julio Aguilar, he's, fraudsters, Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, James Brady, Trump, Alex Wong, Bob Westbrooks, Westbrooks, They've, Lisa Monaco, General Merrick Garland, Garland, David Weiss, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Drew Angerer, Konstantinos Zarkadas, Cartier, Zarkadas, Lee E, Price III, Price, Vinath Oudomsine, Oudomsine, Mickey Mantle, Dudley H, Bowen, Patrick Walsh's, Walsh, Jamie Lovemark, Kevin Lamarque Organizations: Press, AP YANKEETOWN, Associated Press ., James, Getty, YouTube, U.S . Justice, Top Justice Department, U.S, U.S . Department of Justice, Rolex, Houston, Associated Press, National Transportation Safety Board, Bethany Locations: Yankeetown, Fla, Sweetheart, Coast, Florida's, Florida, Associated Press . WASHINGTON, DC, U.S, Washington ,, Las Vegas, Tennessee, Vermont, COVID, Washington , DC, New York, Houston, Georgia, America, Bethany Beach , Delaware

☆ Arnold Diaz, Who Reported on New York’s Swindlers, Dies at 74
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Richard Sandomir | More About Richard Sandomir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The cause of the death, at a hospital, was multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, his son, Alex, said. Mr. Diaz wanted not only to resolve victims’ problems but also to embarrass the malefactors for their misdeeds. He confronted them, chased them and shoved microphones in their faces in search of answers. At WCBS, Channel 2, where he spent more than 20 years, his “Shame on You” investigations were introduced with a short animation that featured a jingle and a hand with a wagging index finger. When the segment moved to WNYW, Channel 5, it was renamed “Shame, Shame, Shame”; later, on WPIX, Channel 11, it was called “What a Shame!”

Persons: Arnold Diaz, Alex, Diaz Organizations: New York, WCBS, WPIX Locations: New York City, Greenwich, Conn, WNYW

☆ Justice Department Says Push Rounded Up 78 Healthcare Swindlers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-says-push-rounded-up-78-healthcare-swindlers-5564deba

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Romance Scams Are Booming — Especially on Facebook and Instagram
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Eve Upton-Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams last year — an 164% increase from 2019 — and $3.3 billion in total since the start of the pandemic. According to the FTC report, the most popular way scammers reached out to their victims last year was through Instagram (29%) and Facebook (28%). And as these schemes get more widespread and more complex, the number of people falling for romance scams keeps growing. Confluence of crypto and romanceIf loneliness was the reason "why" for the soaring number of romance scams, then crypto is the "how." 1 payment method for romance scams last year was cryptocurrency.

☆ Global asset managers in China grapple with fraudulent investor schemes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Such scams have become so widespread that China's securities regulator issued a rare statement on Thursday cautioning investors against fund-raising schemes purporting to be from foreign asset managers. The online rackets add reputational risks for global asset managers already suffering from trademark disputes, geopolitical worries, and cut-throat competition in China. "Swindlers mushroom when the economy is bad," said an executive at a consultancy that serves global asset managers in China. "Cheaters and life-long learners ... some tech-savvy ones would even copy the programming of a foreign money manager's website," he said. Scams using Van Eck's brands first emerged in China's southern Guangdong and Southwestern Guangxi provinces, and later sprung up in central Sichuan province, the source said.

☆ George Santos's elaborate lies has seen the Congressman compared with a 19th-century huckster. History bears that out.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Allegra Rosenberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

My obsession is summed up pretty well by a tweet from @blagojevism: "George Santos is essentially a 19th-century character. Media depicting these characters found inspiration from real life: in a time before digital records and facial recognition, opportunity was everywhere. George Santos's brand of full-throated scammery is particularly American, something that belongs to this country as much as Abraham Lincoln and apple pie. The phrase "and if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you" comes from his legendary real-life method. But Santos, so far, has avoided jail time, giving him at least one leg up over the Yellow Kid.

☆ Antakya businesses empty their shops to avoid looters
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Ali Kucukgocmen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

ANTAKYA, Turkey, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Business owners in a central district of Turkey's Antakya city were emptying their shops on Sunday to prevent their merchandise from being stolen by looters in the wake of Monday's devastating earthquakes. In Antakya, residents and aid workers who came from other cities have cited worsening security conditions, with widespread accounts of businesses and collapsed homes being looted. President Tayyip Erdogan has said the government would deal firmly with looters, noting that a state of emergency had been declared. "For the first few days, everybody looted supermarkets because they needed to. Our other shop collapsed completely.

☆ Robocallers are preying on the elderly with fake Medicare calls. It's a no-brainer to stop it, but nobody has.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

These honeypots comprise only a sliver of the total number of US phone numbers but provide valuable insights into how robocalling scams operate. Every day, the honeypot numbers get inundated with calls from scammers purporting to be from Medicare. Many of those calls spoof the services' "1-800-MEDICARE" (1-800-633-4227) hotline in the phone's caller ID. "Many seniors are targeted by scammers who want to steal their Medicare numbers to do things like rack up fake health care charges and commit identify theft," the representative said. With this in mind, it's unclear why the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services use the phone line for both outbound and inbound calls.

☆ How to Block Scam Calls, the Top Source of Fraud Against Older Adults
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Julie Jargon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Scammers are always finding new ways to dupe people out of money. In the U.S., phone calls remain the primary way swindlers hook older victims. A study published last month by the Federal Trade Commission found that 24% of adults over age 60 who reported losing money to a scam in 2021 said it started with a phone call—the largest percentage of any method, including email, text and mail. For victims 80 and older, phone calls were behind 40% of scams.

☆ Eight Questions to Ask Your Aging Parents (and Yourself) to Keep Their Phones Safe From Hackers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Dalvin Brown | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Scammers have a lot of opportunities to bilk people during the holiday season. How do you make sure they aren’t tricking someone you love—particularly someone who is especially vulnerable to scams? While swindlers will target people of all ages, older Americans have become the favored mark. Adults 60 and over lose the most money to fraud each year, and phone scams do the most financial damage, according to a Federal Trade Commission report released in October 2022.

☆ Reality TV star Todd Chrisley sentenced to 12 years, wife Julie Chrisley gets 7 for bank fraud and tax evasion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dianadasrath-Headshot.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Reality television couple Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced Monday to years in prison, five months after they were found guilty of federal fraud charges and hiding their wealth from tax authorities. Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years, and Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven, according to the U.S. attorney's office. The couple, known for their USA Network series “Chrisley Knows Best,” were found guilty in June of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to defraud the United States by a federal jury in Atlanta. Their accountant was also found guilty of tax fraud for filing false corporate tax returns on their behalf, and Julie Chrisley was further found guilty of wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, Julie Chrisley’s lawyers claimed she had a minimal role in the conspiracy and asked she receive a sentence of probation, restitution and community service, the Associated Press reported.

☆ FTX flop evokes history’s great financial swindles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

As Walter Bagehot wrote in “Lombard Street” in 1873, “The good times too of high price almost always engender much fraud. As cryptocurrencies declined in value, FTX provided a line of credit to BlockFi, a stricken crypto-lender. He talked about Three Arrows Capital, the failed crypto hedge fund, as engaged in “punting”. His firm launched a product based on a basket of crypto assets that it called Shitcoin Index Perpetual Futures, with the unsubtle ticker SHIT-PERP. He commissioned an advertisement, aired during the Super Bowl, in which the comedian Larry David casts doubt on the viability of FTX.

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